www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Who You Are?

Am impressed overall with the erudition of participants to the forum. But full disclosure: there is a bit of slap to this tickle. Thing is, I sometimes find discussions veer into painfully arcane and opaque areas leavened occasionally with refreshing sips of humor, and then as quickly dispelled with clucking salvos of a sui iuris here and a sui iuris there; or else they begin awfully obscure and just stay that way -clear as mud. Being that I am more or less a lunk-head, I am woefully under illuminated theologically to begin with and often enough attempts to illuminate me on this forum fail,generally speaking, because it can feel like I am walking into the middle of a conversation already underway, furiously and fruitlessly struggling to catch up and catch on. In these cases it feels like the theological equivalent of a strapping discussion of some fine points in quantum physics.

So who are you wise guys/gals?

Is the forum mainly theology students or clerics? Is it mainly for theology students and clerics? Am I in the minority in being just a regular Joe Schmoe? Is it too much to ask to dumb things down a bit? Just saying.

I'm just a regular person in the pews. (Gasp! Yes, my church has pews.) I'm a middle-aged mom of 5 little ones. I came here several years ago looking for information on a liturgical matter. I found that and so much more. I am amazed by the collective knowledge of history and theology on this forum. The late Father Serge and others are virtual walking encyclopedias of knowledge. I also appreciate the usually civil nature of the discourse I find here. Sure, at times my eyes glaze over, but I just skip those discussions when I'm not up to them, and head on over to the Town Hall.

Hi Thessalonius Monk,

I am just a 'joe shmoe'!! (I don't know the female equivalent for that). I was interested in all the Eastern faith (I am cradle Orthodox) and religion, and wanted to be spiritually closer (in discussions and social conversation) to other committed Eastern Christians, since there aren't many of them (really committed, not Eastern Christians) where I live to have discussions with.

My eyes also 'glazed over' when I first joined here around eight years ago. I did like learning from certain posters who used to post very interesting religious posts here. When posts were 'above my head', I just skimmed them or skipped them. There are a lot of easy subjects on 'Town Hall'.

I am also honoured to be a Moderator. In the past few years I have let the gents do most of the moderating, and have focused mainly on praying and monitoring the 'Prayer Forum'.

A good way to find subjects that are interesting to you is to go to 'Active Topics' on the tool bar above and click on it, and then click on 'Active Posts'. That will give you a taste of every post and subject and will give you a good foretaste of if the subject/post is something you will want to jump in on or not!

In Christ,
Alice

Hey gals, maybe we are Joe smochettes

I am a widow, mom, and grand mom, a woman trying to figure life out after hanging around life with my hubby of 42 years. Priest and deacons tell me I am called to continue his mission . That is pretty confusing since he was a deacon. Another friend whose husband past away last Jan., well we bug father seeing if he has something for us to do. Both of us are Rose, so father just says he loves roses . We have so many widows in our parish, we see a new ministry forming, who knows.

I hang around here 'cuz we,re family. Some I've met in person, some just in picture and word. But God's Word says where two or more are gathered in my name, I'm there also. So I guess he hangs out here with us. So come on pull up a chair, no question too silly, or hard. Someone knows the answer or where it is. So we are all folks on the same road, headed home to meet Jesus face to face.

Stay with God!

Thessalonius,

I'll be honest - I just got in from 18 hrs of driving and right this minute I couldn't put together a readable answer to your very excellent questions and comments. So, I'll come back to those - probably Tuesday night, because I see tonight as catch-up sleep time.

But, I can answer the above. Nope.

Among active posters, we do have 1 seminarian (he's from Brazil and is attending seminary in Lebanon) - that's the sum total of theology students who come to mind (there is a Latin poster who is a theology major, but he's a very infrequent poster).

Clerics - to our delight and our enrichment - we have several who post with varying degrees of frequency. They include Eastern Catholic and Orthodox priests, an Oriental Orthodox priest, Latin priests, a Lutheran pastor with an interest in and love of the East, and an Episcopalian priest of Ruthenian heritage. There are several deacons, as well as wives and widows of deacons - again representing a variety of Churches. We've also got several subdeacons and quite a few cantors.

But, the vast majority of us are none of the above.

Many years,

Neil

I am a Ukrainian Greek Catholic deacon, preparing to be ordained priest in the next 8 months or so (d.v.).

A former Anglican priest of 8 years, I lecture college students in religion, philosophy, and Latin, and undertake research as a fellow of the local university.

I hold a PhD and post-doctoral license in theology, but in a field obscure enough that most of whatever I might say would be irrelevant to these discussions. Indeed, most of the time I just read with pleasure what those who are more actively thinking about these topics have to say.

I should add that I don't think of myself much as a 'convert', as I grew up in a very 'Catholic-and-Orthodox-friendly' home, and when I was at seminary, spent most of my time reading Eastern theology anyway. Finally, both I and my wife have historic links with Ukraine, so it was only natural that we should have ended up in the East.

I'm just an ordinary women who has been on Byzcath a very long time.

I enjoyed learning about the East from people far more learned than me, and eventually attended Divine Liturgy - that was it - the rest is history . I'm a completely non-Uke member of the UGCC . I do have a Ukrainian GodPapa to whom I will always be grateful for all his help and teaching .

I've learned a lot and have much more to learn.

LOL!!

Hello Thessalonius,

Since you asked, I'm a heterodox fool! Really!

Sprinkled an infant to be the Greek Orthodox grandson of a strong minded Greek grandmother, I departed the GOC in my early 20’s because of irreconcilable differences. I could hardly tender Matthew 20:25-28 in light of the hierarchy they maintain. And there were several other discontents besides.

Now, unconnected with any denomination I am truly the irrecoverable heretic. Evangelicals would likely receive me - except I disallow their favored Rabbi’s Masoretic Text as corrupt holding the Greek Seventy (LXX) to be the God given Old Testament of the Christian faith.

I now seek the true Pauline primitive Christian Way, and harbor nothing ill toward anyone.

η αιρετικη

God bless you all! What a rich and lovely mosaic of experience and Faith! These bios greatly help to provide a more dimensional "feel" for the posters here. Thank you for taking the trouble to respond, and for the help in navigating and understanding this forum. It can be pretty intimidating and, personally, I always have had difficulty with chatting in this manner where I am not face to face with the writer. It's a case where I find it very easy to misconstrue intentions and the nuances is social discourse. I liken communicating in this way to having Aspergers Syndrome, where social cues and other aspects of normative reality are not always easy to discern or fathom.
I am enjoying reading every one of these posts. Please consider continuing; it is almost...almost.... as good as meeting and speaking with you personally!

Well one of the things on this forum is the amount of clergy posting. We don't always know they are clergy, but they speak with clarity and authority. The moderators, such as Alice, work hard to keep everything in an attitude of respect. When one realizes we are Eastern Catholic, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestant/Evangelical, even if my mind serves me right a few atheist/agnostics, maybe even a few of our Jewish brethren. We work to learn, share, love, and respect one another, which occasionally comes with some gruff words.

Over all, we do pretty good. I mean what other forum can you go to, to find a recipe for dinner

Nicely put, Pani! And, any friend of chili - very spicy chili - is jake with me, no matter how gruff their manner or opaque their verbiage. And, if there are any archived recipes for killer borscht on this forum; the hot version with veggies (maybe meat), and where tang is the thang, well, Pani Rose, do tell!